China, Japan & Korea
From Chapter 5: China, Japan & Korea
China, Japan and Korea supply a large share of the inputs Indian factories depend on, and seen from Delhi they can blur into a single bloc. They are three separate ways of doing business, each formed by what that country lived through in the twentieth century. China runs on personal networks and face. Japan weighs a partner by whether the firm will still exist in twenty years. Korea decides fast and then audits deeply. For an Indian exporter the question is also two-sided: these are markets you sell into and the suppliers you buy from. This hub shows where each economy stands on trade agreements, what tends to sell, and which standards act as the gatekeeper.
Key facts
- China two-way trade
- about $151B in 2025-26; India's largest trading partner
- China deficit
- roughly $112B, a record
- China agreement
- no FTA; trade-remedy weather (anti-dumping, BIS) on imports
- Japan agreement
- CEPA since 2011; the most underused door in India's agreement network
- South Korea agreement
- CEPA since 2010, under upgradation
- South Korea deficit
- $14.71B in 2023-24
As of October 2026
Dashboard
